Georgia Tech quarterback situation still in flux

Georgia Tech’s quarterback situation remains in flux this week.

“(Haynes King) is still day-to-day,” Tech coach Brent Key said Tuesday in regard to the status of his starting quarterback. “(I was told) there’s some report someone had come out with on something or another that (King’s) not playing (at noon Saturday at Virginia Tech). There is one person in the entire stratosphere, universe, that makes that call and that’s myself. There’s been zero call made on that. Zero. He’s day-to-day.

“Are we preparing the other guys to play? Yes. Have we ruled (King) out? No. You heard it from the horse’s mouth right there.”

Zach Pyron, who started Saturday in a 31-13 loss to No. 12 Notre Dame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, took the place of King, who had been knocked out with an upper-body injury Oct. 12 at North Carolina. A sophomore, Pyron was 20-for-36 passing for 269 yards and was the team’s leading rusher with 45 yards on 13 carries.

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He threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Lane with 23 seconds left in the game, but also threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter — one of which was returned 36 yards for a touchdown. Pyron played 67 offensive snaps Saturday (two more than he had played in his past 13 games combined).

“Zach is full of grit, full of toughness. He wills people around him to play that way,” Key said. “Started off hot, started off really hot. Thought (offensive coordinator) Buster (Faulkner) did a really good job in that game of putting him in position to get into a rhythm and complete passes early on and move us down the field. He’s gonna do everything within his power to try to win us football games.

“Are there things he can take from it and correct? Yeah. There’s a lot of things we can take and correct from it. But I was very proud of him for the way he went in and performed — now, that’s not saying that (67) plays were perfect. But for a guy that made his first start in two years, really, I thought he went in and gave us what he had. A few plays he’d like to have back with him, but learn from those mistakes and move on this week.”

Whether Pyron or King (or both) play Saturday, Tech’s offense will need an entirely different performance than what it put forth against the Fighting Irish. The Yellow Jackets (5-3, 3-2 ACC) rushed for a measly 64 yards, were 4-of-14 on third downs and gave up two sacks and four tackles for loss.

Some of those numbers were because of the play of a talented Notre Dame defense. But those numbers also were a bit surprising given Tech scored 41 points, eclipsed 500 yards of offense and rushed for 371 yards the week before at UNC.

Now Tech faces a Virginia Tech defense that ranks 16th of 17 ACC teams in defending the run (170.3 yards per game allowed). But the Hokies (4-3, 2-1 ACC) have one of the nation’s better pass defenses (187.1 yards allowed per game), which makes for a curious matchup against a Georgia Tech team that has quarterback questions.

“You like roller coasters? Stick around then,” Key joked about his team’s rushing attack. “We weren’t consistent (against Notre Dame), and there’s a lot of things that go into it. We were never able to establish a consistency with the way the game flow went with it, which was way different than the previous week. Can we play better at certain spots? Yeah. Can we be more consistent as a unit? Yeah. Can we do a better job making someone miss?

“There was a lot less space out there on Saturday than there had been in the past. What some games might be a 30-yard gain, on Saturday they were 2-yard gains, 3-yard gains. Then the way the game continued to unfold, yeah, we had to throw the ball a little bit more the way it was going in the second half.”

The Jackets, now 10.5-point underdogs ahead of Saturday’s matchup, resumed practice Tuesday morning at Rose Bowl Field. Pyron and King were both present for the workout, and the former who could be making his second consecutive start for the Jackets almost two years since he made his first collegiate start: Nov. 5, 2022, at Virginia Tech.